The Stogie Guys

As our readers are no doubt aware, we are baseball fans as well as Stogie Guys. (I root for the surging Mets, while Patrick A is a fan of the pitiable Cubs.)

And while you may be tired of our rantings about baseball, cigars, and the Washington Nationals’ apparent indifference to having half their stadiums’ seats remain empty (even though a plan to put paying customers in some of those seats already exists), I am going to harp on this issue some more with the promise that – barring something extraordinary – it will be the last time for a while.

Last week in the Weekly Wrapper column the godfather of cigar publications, Cigar Aficionado, weighed in on the whole baseball and cigars issue. Author and Mets fan Mike Marsh writes:

What’s also exciting, at least from a cigar smoker’s standpoint, is the recent influx of cigar bars into Major League ballparks. OK, so it’s only been two, but isn’t that a start?

In April, PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates and host of this year’s All-Star Game, opened the Montecristo Club. Then in June, Christian Eiroa and Camacho Cigars struck a deal with the Detroit Tigers to open the Camacho Cigar Bar at Comerica Park. They join the Cuesta-Rey Cigar Bar at Tropicana Field, which has been accommodating cigar-smoking Devil Rays fans since 1998, as the only full-blown cigar bars in the majors.

But the key quote was from one Tigers executive who properly described the beauty of cigar smoking at the ballpark:

Baseball is a relaxing sport… Enjoying a cigar and a drink goes along with that. We want fans to have a well-rounded experience when they come to the ballpark, and cigars reach out to another segment of our fan base.

Our thoughts exactly! Now if only other teams would reach out to the cigar smoking segment of their fan bases…

-Patrick S

Note to our readers: In our ongoing effort to make StogieGuys.com as entertaining and reader-friendly as possible, we’ve decided every Friday to post a sampler of quick cigar news and/or any other stogie-related snippets we find interesting. These briefs should tide you over during those long weekends. We call ‘em Friday Samplers. Enjoy.

1) Cigar Envy recently posted a video of Pierre Salinger, JFK’s late press secretary, recalling how the president asked Salinger to find him 1,000 Cuban cigars the day before he signed the embargo banning Cuban goods.

2) A private collector in England this week paid £365 ($673) for a cigar butt that had been smoked by Sir Winston Churchill in 1950.

3) So you’ve become a Stogie Guy but now you want to make the jump to connoisseur? This tasting wheel (from the now inactive Cigar Jack site) will help you identify the many complex flavors that can be found in premium handmade stogies.

4) We’ve been meaning to review a cigar with a candela wrapper (a green wrapper, also called AMS or American Market Selection) but our friends at Stogie Review beat us to the punch. For more on candela wrappers, check out this January 3 article from Cigar Aficionado.

5) Finally, we’ve introduced a new item to our fantastic Stogie Guys store designed specially for the ladies. It’s definetly sweet.

-The Stogie Guys

I usually don’t get this excited about public transportation, but I just can’t wait for the Macanudo Bus to pull into Washington on its American Passion Tour.

A so-called “cigar lovers’ paradise on wheels”, the traveling cigar lounge allows lucky patrons to partake in premium smokes while relaxing in the luxurious bus, or outside on it’s “green carpet” decked out with high-end patio furniture.

Most recently, the bus – a mobile replica of Club Macanudo in Chicago – pulled into the PGA Tour’s Western Open in Lemont, Illinois. These fortunate golf fans (including my folks) had the opportunity to unwind in Macanudo lavishness, including a big screen television, a putting green, and a blackjack table with a dealer. Complimentary cigars abound, of course.

While it doesn’t appear as though the American Passion Tour will be rolling into the nation’s capital anytime soon, a quick glance at Macanudo’s events webpage reveals the magical mystery tour may be coming to your neck of the woods sometime in the near future (especially if you live in Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, or Louisiana).

If you’re lucky enough to catch the bus, take some pictures and send them along with a short description of your experience. We’ll share your photos and anecdotes with Stogie Guys the world over.

One final note: How sweet would it be to earn a living driving a huge cigar bus – smoking, relaxing, and sharing stories with fine stogie enthusiasts across America? What a long, strange trip that would be…

-Patrick A

As we note in our ratings system, cigars that receive the impressive score of four out of five stogies should be enjoyed “after a delicious meal or with your favorite cocktail.” And no dish better prepares you for a fine cigar and a cocktail than a good steak dinner.

If you are looking for a great steak dinner for a special occasion, Charlie Palmer Steakhouse located at 101 Constitution Avenue NW (opposite the the National Mall and the Capitol building) may be your best choice in Washington. From decor and location, to presentation and service, Charlie Palmer gets high marks across the board.

As for price, Charlie Palmer is in line with DC’s other fine steakhouses such as Smith & Wollensky’s and Morton’s, so a group of four should expect to spend $100 per person for for a full meal including a moderately-priced bottle of wine from their extensive wine list (of course a more exotic selection from the expansive list could easily run several hundred dollars). But then I did say that a dinner at Charlie Palmer should be reserved for special occasions – or for those with bottomless expense accounts.

Appropriately, the steak was the highlight of the evening, though the oysters and tuna tartar appetizers were also favorites. At my table, two of us shared the Porterhouse for two, while the others tried the Filet Mignon: all were delicious. My only small complaint was that the time between when the Porterhouse was presented to us at the table and when it returned artfully sliced on our plates was too long, meaning that the steak was not as warm as it should have been.

After eating, we decided the only proper way to end the meal was to partake in an after-dinner stogie in Charlie Palmer’s cigar-friendly bar area (though sadly, only until DC’s smoking ban goes into effect January 2007). At the bar the friendly bartender poured me a generously portioned Knob Creek Bourbon on the rocks. And while I brought my own smoke, a flavorful Rock Patel Sun Grown Torpedo, which will be reviewed at a later time, I was pleased to see that they offered their own cigar menu with 20 or so stogies ranging from $9 for a CAO gold to a $25 Padron 1926.

So, in conclusion, if you have something to celebrate, and are looking for a great meal to enjoy as a prelude to a fine stogie, I highly recommend the Charlie Palmer Steakhouse.

-Patrick S

I don’t want to make a habit of writing posts in response to reader comments, but in our effort to make StogieGuys.com an open forum for cigar enthusiasts – and simply for the sake of invalidating false information and idiotic opinion once purported as fact – this time I can’t help myself.

An anonymous comment was left on Friday’s post regarding our proposal to the Washington Nationals to create a temporary cigar section at RFK Stadium for an upcoming home game. As you know, the Nats rebuffed our suggestion.

But this guy – who didn’t have the balls to leave his name…and who claims to have a law degree from the University of Virginia (cough) – made some superfluous and blatantly bogus fabrications apparently in an attempt to suggest that our proposal was a bad idea.

In the following paragraphs, I will address Mr. Anonymous’ ridiculous lies and outrageous claims one by one. Enjoy.

[I]t [has] been proven unprofitable for private establishments to allow smoking because of the negative impact it has on non-smokers.

Wrong. If it was profitable for private businesses to ban smoking, they would do so on their own (thereby eliminating the need for Draconian government intervention). And who could blame them? Businesses are in business to make money, and good businesses will do what it takes to increase their profit margins. Private establishments should be able to choose what amenities to offer on their own, and many have already done so. But the sad fact is that smoking bans at their root are not about business; they’re about imposing the tyranny of the majority on minority smokers.

[I]t is also illegal for RFK Stadium to have a cigar smoking facility in the stadium. In my expert legal opinion (UVA Law School ‘04) RFK would not be exempt from the Washington, DC smoking ban. Because it would be run by Aramark, the stadium’s operator, and it would be run inside the stadium it would be counted as part of the profit of the stadium. This means it would not meet the required income from tobacco products to be exempt under DC’s smoking ban. Sorry to rain on your parade.

Well, sorry to rain on your parade, but your “expert” legal opinion is utter bullshit. The DC ban only prohibits smoking in indoor public places. If you have ever been to RFK, you will notice the giant, gaping hole where a roof would need to be for the ban to apply.

That being said, I certainly do not want to discourage readers from leaving comments on StogieGuys.com. Feedback from fellow cigar-lovers is one of the most exciting and rewarding aspects of this hobby, and constructive criticism is always appreciated. But if you’re going to leave anonymous, false, and/or dim-witted ramblings, please be advised that I just might call you out on your lies.

Finally, to whoever left the comment: Grow some balls, write back, identify yourself, and engage us in debate. Anonymously hit-and-running while claiming falsehoods as expert fact is just plain cowardly.

-Patrick A

I picked up a few Don Diegos at a promotional event run by the regional Altadis rep, and hosted by Cigar Connection in Ballston. The friendly Altadis rep was suggesting to customers that the Don Diego Grandee was a similar cigar to Altadis’ famous Montecristo.

This Domincan cigar’s Connecticut wrapper had a few large veins, but overall was very pleasing to the eye and generally well-constructed. Even after I clipped the head off of this toro-sized stogie with my double guillotine cutter, the it held together flawlessly.

The cigar was easy to light and burned evenly producing a sturdy gray ash. And with the lightest lap of my finger, that ash easily dropped off after collecting for over an inch, again a sign of flawless construction – not unlike the Montecristo it was compared to.

However, when it came to taste, not only was the Don Diego not similar to a Montecristo, it didn’t even play in the same league. Montecristos are a medium to mild cigars with complex flavors. This Don Diego, on the other hand, was completely lacking in complexity and its only flavor was the dull woody taste that was transmitted to me in the form of far-too-hot smoke.

Overall, this cigar was very disappointing. I never gave much weight to claims of this stogie’s similarity to Montecristo, but I still expected it to be worthy of the Altadis name which produces such classic smokes as Romeo y Julieta, Trinidad, Saint Luis Rey, and H Upman.

So given that unfortunate disappointment, I give the Don Diego Grandee a mere two out of five stogies.

-Patrick S

Even the most amateur enthusiast knows that cigars need humidity for proper storage. Since they are hydroscopic in nature, cigars will, over time, dry out in an arid climate or absorb moisture in a humid one. Dry cigars yield high combustion temperatures, leaving the smoke hot and acrid on the palate. And wet cigars tend to burn improperly and taste stale.

Therefore, we need to aim for a happy medium between too dry and too damp. For the most enjoyable smoke, this equates to 12 to 14 percent of the cigar’s total weight in moisture (or about 60 to 70 percent relative humidity). If you have a humidor, your hygrometer measures relative humidity. But hygrometers, whether mechanical or electronic, can be grossly imprecise and may require adjustment or replacement. So be sure to verify the accuracy of your hygrometer with the salt calibration test.

I’ll begin by mentioning that my degrees in political science and international commerce in no way qualify me to discuss the intricacies of chemistry. So I won’t try to explain why the salt calibration test works. Just please note that it does.

To perform the test on your own hygrometer, you’ll need a few basic items:

(1) Distilled water (purchased from any grocery store)
(2) Coffee stirrer (or other thin, clean object with which to stir)
(3) Bottle cap (Snapple bottle caps work perfectly)
(4) Empty wide-mouth jar with lid (like a clean mayonnaise jar)
(5) Tablespoon of plain table salt
(6) Your hygrometer

Place the tablespoon of salt within the bottle cap and slowly add distilled water to the salt while stirring with the coffee stirrer. Only add just enough water to moisten the salt so that it becomes a thick paste—do not add enough to dissolve the salt.

Next, place the bottle cap with salt/water mixture gently into your wide-mouth jar and add your hygrometer. Make certain the sensor is exposed and is not blocked by the sides of the jar. Seal the jar so there are no leaks, and put it in a place out of direct sunlight and with a stable, cool temperature (like your closet).

Leave the setup undisturbed for a minimum of eight hours. After that, check the reading on the hygrometer through the glass jar. It should read on or near 75 percent relative humidity. Most inexpensive hygrometers are only accurate to within 3 percent, so do not be surprised if yours reads 72 or 78 percent. Whatever it reads plus or minus our 75 percent benchmark is the amount of error.

If your hygrometer has an adjustment meter then, by all means, try to tweak it to exactly 75 percent relative humidity. You should repeat the salt calibration test after making any adjustments. If your hygrometer can’t be adjusted but the reading is close, then my advice is to not worry about it; just remember that your hygrometer is X percent off—either high or low. If the reading is grossly in error and you are unable to adjust it, you need to replace it.

Once you confirm your hygrometer’s accuracy and maintain a relative humidity of about 65 percent in your humidor, your cigars will age properly and be in peak condition when you’re ready to fire them up.

–Patrick A